Bridge repair begins over West Branch of the Feather River

MAGALIA &GT;&GT; The Bureau of Land Management owned bridge over the West Branch of the Feather River at Whiskey Flat is going to be closed to traffic for up to about 12 weeks.

The bridge carries Jordan Hill Road across the river.

Project supervisor Bill Jensen of Shasta Constructors said his crews began removing the dilapidated wooden decking from the bridge Tuesday.

The rebuilding effort will involve trucking pre-fabricated and pre-drilled decking material to the bridge, which will be attached to the existing steel structure.

The overall project also includes replacing some culverts on nearby stretches of the dirt road.

Bill Kuntz with the Redding office of the BLM, which has taken possession of the bridge, said the total project is supposed to cost about $384,000.

The bridge itself is part of a 672-mile-long dirt road called Ponderosa Way. The road runs from Kern County on the south to Shasta County.

A bronze plaque affixed to one of the of the river bridge's abutments declares, "USDA Forest Service, constructed 1935 by Civilian Conservation Corps in cooperation with the state of California Division of Forestry."

The Forest Service no longer claims ownership of the road, and much of it is no longer being maintained or has entirely disappeared.

Kuntz said the BLM has taken responsibility for this bridge because most of the land immediately adjacent to where the work is taking place belongs to the agency.

More BLM land is involved in another soon-to-be-launched project in Butte Creek Canyon.

The agency says it will be doing "heavy maintenance" on a 3.9-mile stretch of Doe Mill Road from the Skyway to Garland Road at Highway 32 in Forest Ranch.

Kuntz says except for some small segments, almost all of the Doe Mill Road segment of what was Ponderosa Way is owned by the BLM.

Besides the roadwork this project calls for the total replacement of the bridge constructed over Butte Creek by the USDA in 1935.

A BLM press release says Doe Mill Road will be closed from 8 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday during the maintenance project.

The road is supposed to be open on Saturday and Sunday.

That situation is supposed to change when the bridge replacement work begins.

The road will be open and can be used to access Butte Creek from both the east and west sides, but during the construction, the bridge itself will be closed and so the transit between Highway 32 and the Skyway will not be possible. The bridge is expect to be closed until December.

In total the Doe Mill road and bridge project is supposed to cost about $3.35 million.